Sensemaking in Enterprise Resource Planning Project Deescalation: An Empirical Study

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects, a type of complex information technology project, are very challenging and expensive to implement. Past research recognizes that escalation, defined as the commitment to a failing course of action, is common in such projects. While the factors that contribute to escalation (e.g., project conditions, psychological, organizational, and social factors) have been extensively examined, the literature on deescalation of projects is very limited. Motivated by this gap in the literature, this research examines deescalation, that is, on breaking the commitment to the failing course of action with a particular focus on ERP projects. This study is organized as a single-case study of a complex ERP project that was undertaken after a merger of two organizations. It examines how the project team members’ sensemaking is implicated in deescalation. Applying sensemaking as a theoretical lens, this engaged scholarship research contributes to practice by providing recommendations on how to better manage ERP project deescalation. It contributes to theory by providing a nuanced understanding of ERP project deescalation through project team members’ sensemaking activities

How to Turn Around a Failing ERP Implementation:Project Management Routines as Boundary Objects

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are very challenging and expensive to implement and past research recognizes that these projects continue to suffer from high failure rates. While the factors that contribute to these failures have been extensively examined, we know little about how to turn failing projects around. In response, this research presents a study of a failing ERP implementation project that was successfully turned around over a twelve-month period. Adapting theory of sensemaking through boundary objects, we explain how a new project manager helped the team members share their individual perspectives on the problematic situation and together develop new directions through mindful enactment of project management routines. As a result, we offer a detailed empirical account of the ERP project turnaround; practical lessons managers can use to intervene into failing ERP projects; and, a theoretical model of how project management routines as boundary objects can help participants make sense of cooperative work in the absence of consensus